World News: First French Guantanamo detainees released

Posted: Wednesday, July 28, 2004

PARIS - Four French detainees held by U.S. authorities for more than two years at Guantanamo Bay returned home Tuesday - the first French nationals to be released from the U.S. base after months of talks - and negotiations were under way for the transfer of three others.

The four suspects arrived by plane at a military base in Normandy and were taken by bus to Paris to appear before counterintelligence agents and anti-terrorism Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere. The men - Mourad Benchellali, Imad Kanouni, Nizar Sassi and Brahim Yadel - were apprehended in the U.S. campaign that toppled Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

While historic allies, France and the United States have been at odds for more than a year over the best way to fight terrorism, Turkey's bid to join the European Union, the conflict in the Middle East, and the war in Iraq.

French court nullifies same-sex marriage

BORDEAUX, France - The first gay couple to be married in France vowed Tuesday to fight a court decision that annulled their union and said any redefinition of marriage should be taken up by lawmakers.

Stephane Chapin and Bertrand Charpentier, who exchanged vows June 5, said they would appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary and were confident of eventual victory.

"We will win in the European Court, thus in France," said Charpentier said. "We are sure that we will win because we'll take this as far as possible." Their lawyer called the ruling "reactionary." "The marriage is valid until at least the court of appeal rules," said attorney Emmanuel Pierrat.

But the court in southwestern Bordeaux said any redefinition of marriage "must be debated and requires the intervention of the legislature."

Britain's STDs on rise despite new programs

LONDON - Rates of sexually transmitted infections in Britain rose again last year despite new programs aimed at reining in a decade of increases, health experts said Tuesday.

The number of infections - 708,083 - was 4 percent higher than in 2002, but Britain's Health Protection Agency said the pace of the increase appears to be slowing. The statistics do not include HIV infections, which are tracked separately.

Sexually transmitted diseases have been on the rise across Europe since the mid-1990s. Health experts partly blame complacency over condom use and casual sex as fear of HIV has eased.

Chechen warlord video thought to be credible

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - A top security official Tuesday said a videotape showing prominent Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev looting an arsenal after last month's insurgent attacks in Ingushetia appeared authentic.

A second expert said testimony from captured rebel suspects indicated that Basayev led the June 21 raid in which 90 people died.

The video was posted to a pro-rebel Web site Monday and showed Basayev and about a dozen other camouflage-clad men pulling weapons and ammunition boxes off shelves in a building that Basayev said on the tape was an Interior Ministry arsenal in Ingushetia.

Sergei Koryakov, director of the Federal Security Service in Ingushetia, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it proved details "of events that occurred."

Also of note

Collapsed Afghan hospital kills four: Four people were found dead in the rubble of a hospital that collapsed during renovation in the Afghan capital, officials said Tuesday. Twenty-six more were injured and as many as twelve were missing. A wing of the stripped-down structure of the Jamhuriat Hospital crumbled without warning Monday, burying reconstruction workers.

Colombian bishop freed by rebels: Marxist guerrillas freed a Roman Catholic bishop Tuesday, three days after he was abducted, church officials said. Misael Vacca Ramirez, the bishop of Yopal, was released close to where he was taken in remote mountains near Morcote.